parkrun Comes To Putrajaya And It's The Biggest in Asia!

On Apr 14, 2018 the first parkrun in Malaysia, Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun was launched at Taman Pudu Ulu Park.
parkrun is an organised free, weekly, 5km timed runs that are held around the world. The runs are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in.

I have known about parkrun for a few years now and was happy to learn about it coming to our shores. However, I have yet attended the Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun due to its location.

I was happy to learn about the Presint 18 parkrun, Putrajaya as the location is nearer to our home and decided the day before the launch and on its first event on Saturday, Nov 3 2018; to check the event out - not as a runner (because I'm still recuperating from my ankle injury) but to take my friends' photos.
And to make it more momentous, Presint 18 parkrun, Putrajaya was the largest parkrun in Asia, with 337 runners and walkers with 287 people attending their first ever parkrun and they were supported by 30 volunteers; 19 of them volunteering for the first time ever at parkrun. Awesome!

The run was flagged off by the President of Perbadanan Putrajaya Datuk Aminuddin Bin Hassim and among the runners who attended the first Presint 18 parkrun, Putrajaya was a group of more than 30 runners from Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun, Jérôme Besnaud from West Coast Park parkrun, Vinh Lam from Bishan parkrun and Amer Ismail from Fulham Palace parkrun.

I didn't inform anyone of my intention to drop by and check out the parkrun. Hubby and I just went to the Presint 18 parkrun quietly, parked ourselves mid-route to take some photos so I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by runners (my friends of course called my name, and there were those who said hi to Cik Arnab). Didn't expect anyone would recognise us. Hah hah
It was great to see such a great turnout for the parkrun and a good mixture of fast front pack runners who aimed for their best timing along with those who turned up with their families to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and the outdoors.

I always love to take photos of kids out running happily alongside their parents (SCKLM Kids Dash is such a joy to take photos at) and this parkrun was no exception.

The 5km route is an out and back flat course along Putrajaya Lake. The route starts at Kompleks Futsal towards Taman Wawasan and then runners make a u-turn before ending back at Kompleks Futsal Presint 18 (and faced a small uphill section for the final 100m or so).
The parkrun Presint 18, Putrajaya RD as the lead bike.
All in all, this is a really great event. What's not great about it?
It's free.
It's timed.
You're running with others in a controlled environment.

For our part, we only need to register before the run, print a copy of our barcode.

Looks like a definite thumbs up from one of the runners who joined.

I'm going to encourage my siblings who have recently started to be interested in jogging to join the parkrun. I think it'll be a great motivation for them to join this event and really catch the running bug themselves.

Do visit their website more details on Presint 18 parkrun, Putrajaya or any other parkruns around the world and how to register for their weekly runs. Or you can also visit their Facebook page facebook.com/presint18parkrunputrajaya.

To view the photos we had taken during the run, do visit our Facebook page Cik Arnab & En Kura-Kura.

Comments

  1. Oh, let me find out where Taman Pudu Ulu is. Thanks for the sharing about parkruns. Great for non runners who would like to run at leisure.

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    Replies
    1. The run does cater for the competitive & leisure as we still get our timing and ranking recorded. Butvyes, definitely a great Option for those who just started.

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